Ragapriya Chamber Music Club anniversary begins in Madurai city

The 57th anniversary of Ragapriya Chamber Music Club commenced here on an auspicious note with vocalist Ramakrishnan Murthy’s concert at Fortune Pandyan Hotel.

The concert began celebrating Goddess “Sri Varalakshmi” with the kriti propitiating the Goddess of Wealth by Muthuswamy Dikshithar in Sriragam set to Rupaka talam.

The charanam of the song describes how Varalakshmi puja is celebrated on a Friday before the full moon when Goddess Lakshmi bestows boon on her devotees.

Without much prelude, he plunged into Thiagaraja’s pancharatna kriti, “Sadinchane” in Aarabhi set to Adi tala. He brought out the playfulness of Lord Krishna with suitable energy and concluded the piece with a few peppy variations to the pallavi.

The alapana which followed was a nuanced Dhanyasi for Shyama Shastri’s “Meenalochana brova” in misrachapu talam. The violinist Deepika Venkatraman, deftly and gently summed up the singer’s phrases and the mridangist N.C.Bharadwaj, drew the attention of the listeners with some lively beats, particularly during the creative elaboration of the phrase, “Gaama palini Bhavani.”

The team vibed very well together for this kriti, which was a salute to the patron Madurai Neelakanta Sivan’s Purvi Kalyani master piece, “Ananda Natamaduvar” in rupaka talam followed. The singer and his team presented the song with great relish, following up the lyrics with rhythmic chittaiswarams befitting a song that was about the celestial dance.

In the same vein, his presentation of Papanasam Sivan’s “Kapali” in mohanam set to Aditalam was very pleasant. Then Murthy began his interpretation of Kaanada ragam for “Sukhi evaro” by Tyagaraja. The flow of the alapana was engaging and organic.

The violinist scaled the octaves with ease and skill. The song was set to Deshadi talam and mrudangist gave an inspired solo towards the end of the song. All the final songs were in Tamil. “Kumaran Thazh panindu”, “Suttum Vizhi sudardha” “Ongi Ulagalanda” were well received. The concert ended with a lively ‘Thiruppugazh’ with a reference to the ancient city of Madurai.